1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for displaying a musical score with notes and signs in musical notation on the display screen of a computer system using musical data representing events of notes and signs for a musical performance, and more particularly to such an apparatus which permits the displayed score to be edited by moving a note from the existing position to another position on the screen, whereby a connective sign such as a slur, a slide, a bending and a hammering-on which connects plural notes is also moved on the screen together with the moved note keeping the connection with other connected note or notes. The present invention further relates to such an apparatus as above which also displays a tablature with appropriate exhibits of strings and fret numbers for the notes associated with a connective sign. The present invention also provides a computer program which configures the above apparatus using a computer system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has conventionally been known in the art an apparatus of a data processing type which displays a music score on the display screen based on musical data and prints the music score on paper in the style exhibited on the screen, as well as computer software for configuring such an apparatus using a computer system. There has also been known in the art sequencer software which displays a music progression in a piano roll style or in a music score style (ordinary musical notation), and which permits edition of the music by pointing an intended note or notes on the screen and altering the pitch or duration of the note or deleting or inserting a note or notes in the displayed music.
Using such an apparatus or software, graphical edition of a music score is possible by inserting or deleting notes or signs at positions pointed by a mouse or the like device, or changing the positions in the music score displayed on the screen. It is also possible to edit plural notes connected by a connective sign such as a slur by altering the order of the notes (in the sequence) or lengthening or shortening the distances between the notes which are connected by a connective sign.
There has further been known in the art a apparatus or software which possesses a function of altering the style of displaying a music on the screen, such as from the ordinary notation of music using five-line staves to a different notation such as a tablature. Tablature is a kind of music notional system in which a plurality of horizontal lines indicate corresponding strings of the musical instrument and numerals positioned on the lines indicate the frets to press the string, and a tablature for the guitar, for example, comprises six horizontal lines to represent, from top to bottom, the first through sixth strings, numerals to indicate the fret positions and tails to indicate the durations of the notes.
According to such prior art apparatus or software, it is possible to change the aligning order of a plurality of notes, however, in case there is a connective sign such as a slur connecting those plurality of notes, the connective sign would not be changed on the display screen or a connective sign which has lost its association with the note would be automatically deleted, thereby change merely the location of the note or notes. This does not necessarily display the correct musical score as intended by the operator of the edition. Further, an apparatus for creating (composing) a music performance data file can only create a music performance data file which corresponds to the display on the screen, and therefore would not be able to provide a music performance data file which meets the intention of the user (composer).
Further, in the case where an edition operation to lengthen (expand) the distance between the notes connected by a connective sign takes place, the sign itself would be elongated according to the distance between the notes. If the distance is greater than the span of a single screen range exhibiting the images at one time, the plurality of notes would not be exhibited on the single screen at a time concurrently with the associated sign simply elongated in its ordinary fashion. Then it would not be easily understood what notes on the screen are associated with what kind of sign. A too lengthy sign exhibited across the screen would hinder the displayed music score to make it less understandable. Further in the case of tablature notation, it has not been possible to exhibit fret numbers which matches a special playing manner on the instrument such as a bending, which means that the prior art apparatus or software cannot present a correct tablature for the user if the performance includes special manipulative manners with respect to the string and the fret number for the note.
It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks involved in such a conventional apparatus or software of displaying music score data and permitting edition thereon, and to provide a music score display apparatus and software therefor which exhibits a music score that is easily and correctly understandable by the player with respect to the connective signs and the associated notes.
It is, further, an object of the present invention to provide a music score display apparatus and software which permits the correct alteration of the exhibited connective sign in accordance with the change in the order of the aligned notes or with the move of a note or notes associated with the connective sign.
It is, still further, an object of the present invention to provide a music score display apparatus and software which permits a clear and easily understandable exhibit of the notes and the signs, indicating what kind of connective sign is associated with which notes in the score, even in the case that any other of the notes connected with a connective sign would be out of sight from the instant screen.
It is, still further, an object of the present invention to provide a music score display apparatus and software which permits correct indications for the player, even in the case that the music score is displayed in a different notation from the ordinary one by converting the data for the ordinary notation to the data for such a different notation.
In order to accomplish the object of the present invention, the invention provides a music score display apparatus comprising: a musical data providing module which provides musical data representing events of notes and events of signs for a musical performance, the signs including at least one connective sign connecting plural notes; a display module which displays on a display screen a music score by exhibiting the events in musical notation based on the musical data; an edit module which permits edition of the music data by moving at least one exhibited note event at one position to another position on the score; and an alteration module which, in case the moved note event is connected with another note event with an exhibited connective sign, is capable of altering the exhibited connective sign, thereby keeping association of the exhibited connective sign with the moved note event and the other note event.
The connective sign may be such as a tie, a slur, a slide, a bending and a hammering on. The note event may be moved in the direction of note pitch, or in the direction of time progression, or in the both directions. The musical data may include sign exhibit data for exhibiting a sign event and note play data for playing notes according to the sign event, and in case the sign exhibit data might be altered, the note play data which correspond to the sign event may also be altered. A music score display apparatus may further comprise a tone play data creating module which creates tone play data indicative of tones to be played for realizing a performance as designated by the connective sign, the tone play data creating module including at least one template defining a manner of change in tone pitch; wherein the sign exhibit data may include template nominating data which nominates a template for nominating a template to be employed for the note event associated with the sign exhibit data, and the sign exhibit data may further include note data to be associated with the sign exhibit data. The tone play data creating module may create tone play data based on the template nominated by the template nominating data and on the note data for which the template is to be employed. The tone play data creating module may select an appropriate template from at least one template and rewrites the tone play data in accordance with the moving of the note event.
In order to further accomplish the object of the present invention, the invention provides a music score display apparatus comprising: a musical data providing module which provides musical data representing events of notes and events of signs for a musical performance, the signs including at least one connective sign connecting plural notes; a display module which displays on a display screen a music score by exhibiting the events in musical notation based on the musical data; and a display control module which controls the display module to exhibit a connective sign in a special fashion which is different from the ordinary fashion of exhibiting the connective sign, in case the notes connected by the connective sign cannot be exhibited on one screen range concurrently.
The special fashion may be an exhibit of a fractional part of the connective sign and a character indicating the connective sign. A music score display apparatus may further comprise an edit module which permits edition of the music data by moving at least one exhibited note event at one position to another position on the score, in which the display control module controls the display module to exhibit a connective sign in the special fashion, in case the notes connected by the connective sign cannot be exhibited on one screen range concurrently as a result of the moving of the note event.
In order to still further accomplish the object of the present invention, the invention provides a music score display apparatus comprising: a musical data providing module which provides musical data representing events of notes and events of signs for a musical performance, the signs including at least one connective sign connecting plural notes; a display module which displays on a display screen a music score by exhibiting the events in musical notation based on the musical data; a tablature data providing module which provides tablature data for exhibiting the events in tablature notation from the musical data, the tablature notation including strings and fret numbers of a stringed musical instrument; a display control module which controls the display module to display a tablature for the musical performance based on the tablature data corresponding to the musical notation.
The display control module may control the display module to exhibit a first note event in a special fashion in case a sign event associated with the first note event is of a first category which necessitates a special fashion exhibition whereas to exhibit a second note event in an ordinary fashion in case a sign event associated with the second note event is of a second category which does not necessitate a special fashion exhibition. The sign event of the first category may be bending (i.e. choking) and arming. The sign event of the second category may be hammering on, pulling, trill and slide. The display control module may control the display module to exhibit the fret numbers corresponding to the notes in the ordinary relation in case the associated sign event is of the second category whereas to exhibit the fret numbers corresponding to the notes in a special relation which is specifically defined depending on the sign event and is different from the ordinary relation in case the associated sign event is of the first category.
As will be understood from the above description about the apparatus for displaying a music score, a sequence of steps each performing the operational function of each of the structural element modules of the above music score display apparatus will constitute an inventive method for displaying a music score data set according to the spirit of the present invention.
Further as will be understood from the above description about the apparatus and the method for displaying a music score data set, a storage medium containing a program executable by a computer system, which program comprising program modules for executing a sequence of the processes each performing the operational function of each of the structural element modules of the above music score displaying apparatus or performing each of the steps constituting the above music score displaying method will reside within the spirit of the present invention.
Further as will be apparent from the description herein later, some of the structural element modules of the present invention are configured by a computer system performing the assigned functions according to the associated programs. They may of course be hardware structured discrete devices performing the same functions.
The present invention may take form in various components and arrangement of components including hardware and software, and in various steps and arrangement of steps. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating a preferred embodiment and processes, and are not to be construed as limiting the invention.